Let me tell you a story that ends in tears.
It’s Thanksgiving day. Our neighbors have a house full of guests, but one empty chair. Their son Steve is spending a year teaching in China. On this, his first Thanksgiving away from home, his parents console themselves that at least they will have a Skype video chat with him before dinner.
But a conspiracy is underway. As dusk falls, our doorbell rings. It’s Steve, haggard but happy after his secret, multi-flight journey home. He hugs us and slips into our basement. At the appointed time, in a corner we knew our friends couldn’t identify, Steve fires up his computer.
Oh, the wistful family is happy to see him. One after another, they step in front of the webcam to ask about China, tell him they miss him, and even comment on the nice quality of the transmission from so far away. His younger brother, the kingpin of this conspiracy, is taping, of course.
That’s why I can show you what happens next.
My neighbors will share this story forever — visually and verbally. It will get better with every telling but the message will always be the same — about the value of love, of holiday traditions, of brotherly bonds and kids growing up to outsmart their parents.
That’s the power of stories. It’s why Great Bosses understand the relationship of stories to leadership.
But there’s an art to storytelling. Not everyone is a raconteur. In social situations, people can always disengage. That’s not so easy when the teller of stale tales is the boss, and the audience is more captive than receptive.
If you would like to be better at management-by-story, here are six tests of a story worth telling:
- Does it have a clear focus?
- Does it touch emotions?
- Does it serve as a metaphor for a current situation?
- Is it framed for the listener — using shared lexicon and references?
- Is it grounded in values that matter?
- If it involves you, the boss, is it insightful but not self-aggrandizing?
That last point is important. Storytelling bosses go astray when their personal anecdotes consistently cast themselves as the hero, imply their experiences are more valuable than anyone else’s or dwell on the past without helpfully connecting to the present or future.
But please don’t shy away from first person stories. As my colleague Chip Scanlan always taught in Poynter writing seminars (and in this essay), the more personal we are, the more universal we become.
The trick is knowing what makes your personal story universal — why people would easily identify with it. This way, a leader connects with the struggles, hopes, joys and fears of others.
Some managers know instinctively when a story is the best leadership tool to use, some could benefit from some friendly advice. In today’s podcast, “What Great Bosses Know about Great Stories,” I’ll share six situations in which stories can be a boss’s best approach.
Poynter’s “What Great Bosses Know” podcast is sponsored by The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
You can download a complete series of these podcasts free on iTunes U. Poynter’s leadership and management expert Jill Geisler shares practical information on leadership and management that’s valuable for bosses in newsrooms and all walks of life.